In the past few years, we have seen how social media has drastically changed the way that brands reach their customers. In fact, social media started to play a big role in purchasing decisions.

The growth of "online celebrities" through social networks caught marketers' attention and that's where the idea of social influencers comes in.

There's a great explanation about the growth of social influencers:

"Consumers have always valued opinions expressed directly to them. Marketers may spend millions of dollars on elaborately conceived advertising campaigns, yet often what really makes up a consumer’s mind is not only simple but also free: a word-of-mouth recommendation from a trusted source. As consumers overwhelmed by product choices tune out the ever-growing barrage of traditional marketing, word of mouth cuts through the noise quickly and effectively." - Bughin, Jacques. Doogan, Jonathan. Vetvik, Ole Jørgen (2010, April). A new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing.

In simple words: people trust people!

Wait, What Is a Social Media Influencer?

Well, here's a good definition:

"An influencer is quite simply someone who carries influence over others. A social media influencer is someone who wields that influence through social media. The form of influence can vary and no two influencers are the same. Celebrity endorsements were the original form of influencer marketing, but in the digital age of online connection, regular people have become online “celebrities” with powerfully engaged social media followings, especially in certain market segments." - Newberry, Christina (2017, April 19). A Comprehensive Guide to Influencer Marketing on Social Media.

Cool, Why Should I Care?

The numbers are quite impressive, and seconded by Twitter's research of is users:

Conclusion

In a few steps, we built a simple scraper that automates the process of finding social media influencers. You can combine this with machine learning, use IBM Watson or another vendor’s cognitive service to analyze those profiles and do incredible things.